Electronic navigation and information systems are being developed for use in motor cars. These systems can relieve the driver of a car or his passengers from the task of finding the best route to a destination. More specifically for the police, fire brigade, ambulances and suchlike it is of great importance that they do not lose time in looking for the best route, but also for the average car driver such a system may save much annoyance. Not only can the system be useful in unknown regions, but also in familiar surroundings, as it can map out a route which avoids traffic jams.
Such a system must known the actual position of a vehicle to be navigated.
The invention relates to a method of determining the position of a vehicle, in which navigation parameters are measured with which periodically dead reckoning coordinates are calculated, which are compared to topographical and traffic-technical information stored in a global data base, an arrangement for the determination of the position of a vehicle, provided with a memory for storing a global data base with topographical and traffic-technical information and a processor which is programmed for periodically calculating dead reckoning coordinates on the basis of measured navigation parameters, as well as to a vehicle provided with such an arrangement. Such a method and arrangement are known from the article "CARIN, a car information and navigation system" by M. L. G. Thoone, Philips Technical Review, Vol. 43, No. 11/12, December 1987.